


A Prince and A Villain

by Civilbloodoncivilhands



Category: If We Were Villains - M.L. Rio
Genre: implied and presumed to be one-sided james/oliver
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-23
Updated: 2020-05-23
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:40:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24332218
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Civilbloodoncivilhands/pseuds/Civilbloodoncivilhands
Summary: Richard's death from James' point of view
Comments: 2
Kudos: 27





	A Prince and A Villain

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote this a really long time ago (like 2 years smh) and it was going to be part of a longer series but i never wrote anything else  
> i wanted to post it anyway though, and so i am with very minimal edits just because

Richard comes stumbling out of the Castle. He looks drunk. He looks dangerous. He’s raving about Meredith and Oliver, Meredith and Oliver. They’d gone upstairs. Together. They were in her room. Together. The door was locked. Together. They won’t come out.

Together.

I feel something break deep inside me, as if I’d let myself hope things could be different, as if they already were. As if my obsession with him and his gentleness and his Oliverness could ever be reciprocated. 

_What fools these mortals be._

It was always about Meredith, it could never, would never, be me. Richard looks at Wren and I, sitting (together) on the table, and then storms off towards the woods in an irrepressible rage. Wren stands up abruptly and chases after him. I try to stop her. It’s all too dangerous, but she grabs him by the arm and turns him around, begging, pleading, with him to listen.

He grabs her, violently. I feel a stab of pain shoot through my arms, where he’d grabbed me just as roughly so many times before. The bruising, I can always feel it. The pain is constant. Always in the back of my mind, but this, this abuse, it’s worse. 

Richard lifts Wren straight off the ground and throws her halfway across the yard. She crumples into a ball, sobbing, and Richard tears off into the dark woods just beside the castle. I run towards Wren, my head pounding. She’s lying on the ground, tears streaming down her face, her dress torn and muddy and her hair all messed up. I lift her up gently and carry her inside where we’re intercepted by Filippa who takes one look at Wren and then turns back towards the general room announcing that the party is over and everyone needs to leave immediately.

She makes her way over to where Wren and I are standing in the doorway and helps me lower Wren so she can stand, then wraps an arm around Wren’s waist while I keep a firm grip on her shoulders. We walk Wren up the stairs and to her bedroom, Pip whispering soft words of comfort over and over again. Whether to comfort Wren or me or maybe herself, I don’t know.

Wren falls onto the bed, still crying and I look at Filippa who motions towards the door, telling me they’ll be alright and she’ll stay with Wren for the night. As I turn to leave I feel Wren grab my wrist, ‘Please,’ she sobs, ‘Go after him. He’ll hurt himself.’

I nod silently, though I know it’s a fucking stupid thing to do, and race downstairs thinking, for whatever reason, I’ll be able to calm him down.

The woods are dark and I can hardly find my way around. I call out for Richard. Once. Twice. I feel uneasy. As though something or someone is following me, but when I turn around it’s far too dark to see. A sharp pain passes over my arms again and I grab at them softly, wincing. It’s too eerie, too otherworldly. I feel as though, at any moment, something’s going to jump out at me. Hurt me, as Richard had, but far far worse. _Now o’er the one half-world,’_ I murmur, ‘ _Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse/The curtain’d sleep. Witchcraft celebrates/ Pale Hecate’s off’rings, and wither’d murder-‘_

Another noise. Directly behind me. Loud and distinct and terrifying. I spin around quickly. Nothing’s there. Nothing visible. The feeling stays. Something watching me. My arms bruise and tingle with pain and I run towards the dock thinking maybe Richard’s made his way towards the lake, done something stupid and Richardy like jump in the fucking water. I get all the way to the boathouse. Head pounding. Heart racing. Arms aching. When I hear the noise behind me again. 

Distinct. Terrifying. Human. Richard.

I turn around and there he is, eyes blazing, lips curled upwards in a cruel imitation of a smile. He’s been following me. The entire time I’ve been looking for him he’s been tracking me like an animal. Like some sort of prey. Like this is all a fucking game.

‘There you are,’ I keep my voice level and calm, ‘Let’s go back up, your cousin’s a wreck.’

‘Don’t you worry about my cousin.’

‘Fine.’ Pounding, racing, aching. All a game. ‘Everyone’s upset. Come back and we’ll sort it out.’

‘No.’ He laughs but it’s cruel and hateful and full of malice and I can feel my toes curl and my blood dry up inside my veins, ceasing to flow. The air in my lungs contracts, folds in on itself. He lunges towards me and I stumble backwards. He pushes me, lightly at first. Daring me to push back. Aching. Pounding. Racing. All a game.

‘Why don’t you fight back?’ Richard snarls and pushes me again, harder. 

‘Why won’t you get your hands dirty?’ Another shove.

‘Let’s play a game, little prince, let’s play a _game._ ’ Breathe. Racing. Breathe. Pounding. Breathe. Aching. Breathe.

I hold out my hands. To placate him, to protect myself, to ward him off- I don’t know. I don’t fucking care. Breathe. ‘Why don’t you just come back to the Castle and we’ll talk to Wren? We’ll talk to Meredith, we’ll fix it.’

Silence. Smile. An imitation. Laughter. Cruel. Bruises. Aching. Blood pumping, head pounding. Breathe.

_Men are flesh and blood and apprehensive._

‘Why can’t you and Oliver just admit you’re queer for each other and leave my girls alone?’

Something breaks. Something deep. Something I thought was untouchable. Breathe. Aching.

_I do know but one man that unassailable holds on his rank._

Breathe. ‘I don’t know who told you otherwise, but you don’t own Meredith and you certainly don’t own Wren. Drink yourself to death if you like. I’m going.’

_I am he._

He shoves me. Hard. So hard I fall through the boat house doors, feeling them shatter around me, and I crash into a pile of junk just inside the entrance. Richard starts towards me and I can feel my entire body aching. I grab the thing nearest to me. A boat hook. Sharp and rusted and deadly. 

I stand up and rush past him, holding the hook out as a defence, but he follows me to the dock, corners me.

I look at him, breathing heavily, and he laughs. Deep and dangerous. Threatening. ‘Do it, pretty boy, little prince, I dare you.’ He pushes me again. Pushes me all the way down to the end of the dock.

My lungs feel as though they’re filled with water. Just like on Halloween. Who’s to stop him from drowning me this time? He continues to taunt me, but I barely hear him. My head is pounding and my heart is racing and I can feel the boat hook weighing heavy and solid in my hand. It’s just me and Richard and the water and the boat hook and either way someone’s going to get hurt so why should it be me?

_Bloody, bawdy villain! Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, mindless villain!_

‘I dare you I dare you I dare you-‘

I surge forward, gripping the boat hook tightly and for just a second everything is clear. I can feel the blood flowing freely through my veins. I can see Richard, his bulky shape outlined brightly with the pale moon as a backdrop, shining down powerful and white and pure. The painful jolt of impact. His blood spewing forth, washing over me, hot and sticky and covering my face; splattering dark and venomous against the dock. He falls, as if in slow motion, towards the water, and the sickening splash tears through me, jolting me awake.

I run.

Back towards the Castle. Back towards Oliver (and Meredith). Back towards Wren. Away from the lake. Away from the body. Away from the silence.

_Though now we must appear bloody and cruel as by our hands and this our present act you see we do-_

A villain for a villain. A body for a life. Aching again, all over. Brutus killed Caesar. (But was it justified?)

_Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?_

Bruises. Pain. Head pounding. Guilt. Heart racing. Villains. Villain. Blood. Silence. _I am he._ Macbeth killed Duncan. (But was it justified?)

_A murderer and a villain._

Justifiable. A tragic hero. Hero. Murderer. Villain. Aching, bruising, breathing. 

Caesar’s dead, Duncan’s dead, Claudius’ dead. 

Richard’s dead. (But was it justified?)

**Author's Note:**

> Most of the dialogue, except for a few phrases here and there has been pulled directly from IWWV. The Shakespeare plays quoted are: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Julius Caesar, Macbeth, and Hamlet (I alternate a lot between them so if you're really curious as to which quote comes from where I could dig it up for you lol, some of them are pretty recognizable tho)
> 
> [my tumblr](https://dionysuswearsanorangetracksuit.tumblr.com/) <3


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